The Dying Autocracy and New Organs of Popular Rule[1]

Published:Novaya Zhizn, No. 19, November 23, 1905 . Signed:N. Lenin.

      Published according to the text in NovayaZhizn.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1965,

      Moscow,Volume 10,

      pages66-70.Translated:Transcription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Theinsurrection is gaining ground. The impotence, confusion and disintegration
of the autocratic Witte Government are increasing. The organisation of the most
diverse groups, sections and classes of the people, the organisation of the
revolutionary and the counter-revolutionary forces, is growing in breadth and
depth.

Suchis the situation at present. It can be expressed in the words: organisation
and mobilisation of the revolution. Land battles in Voronezh and Kiev follow on
the heels of the naval battle in Sevastopol. In Kiev the armed uprising
apparently goes a step further, a step in the direction of merging the
revolutionary army with the revolutionary workers and students. That, at any
rate, is the testimony of the report infinsabout a meeting of 16,000
people in the Kiev Polytechnical Institute, held under the protection of a sap
per battalion of insurgent soldiers.

Itis quite natural that in the circumstances even the liberal bourgeoisie,
which longs from the bottom of its heart for a deal with the autocracy, is
beginning to lose patience, to lose faith in the “great” acrobat
Witte, and to cast its eyes towards the left, in search of a force capable of
carrying out the revolution which has become an absolute necessity.

Inthis respect, the stand taken byfinsis highly instructive. This
newspaper clearly sees that “events are beginning to pile up in just such
an avalanche as preceded October 17”. And so, on the one hand, it appeals to the
very Zemstvo leaders who have manifested no less confusion, impotence and
helplessness than the autocratic government.It calls on them “not to delay” and to take “part in the
impending events”, in order “to give the outcome of these events
mild forms, least prejudicial and most favourable to the country”. On the
other hand, this very samefinsdisagrees withSlovo,[2]declaring that “no one believes that the present government could
convoke a State Duma under the present circumstances”. “At present,”
statesfins, “it is necessary to think of forming a government
that could convoke a Duma.”

Thus,under the pressure of the revolutionary proletariat, the liberal
bourgeoisie takes another step to the left. Yesterday it was expressing a desire
to bargain with Witte and adopted a conditional vote of confidence in him (at
the Zemstvo Congress). Today confidence in Witte is waning, and capital is
demanding a new government,finsproposes that all liberation parties
set up a special national council of deputies, which would become a
“powerful instrument of pressure on the government, if the latter shows
itself still [!!] capable of functioning, and an organ of power
of the people ready for use, to take over the duties of the government
provisionally in the event of the latter’s utter incapacity and collapse”.

Inplain and simple Russian, an organ of power of the people which temporarily
assumes the duties of a government that has collapsed is called a provisional
revolutionary government. Such a government is bound to be provisional, for its
authority expires with the convocation of a constituent assembly
representing the whole people. Such a government is
bound to be revolutionary, for it replaces a government that has collapsed, and
it does so with the, support of the revolution. The very replacement of one by
the other cannot occur other than by revolutionary means. Such a government must
become an “organ of power of the people”, carrying out everywhere
the demands put forward by the people and replacing at once, immediately and
everywhere all the old, autocratic and Black-Hundred “organs of
power” by organs of power of the people, i.e., either by representatives
of the provisional revolutionary government or by elected persons in all cases
where elections are possible—on the basis, of course, of universal, equal
and direct suffrage by secret ballot.

Weare very glad that the liberal monarchist bourgeoisie has arrived at the idea
      of a provisional revolutionary government. We are glad not because we
      believe that the Liberals have sided with the revolution, not because we
      have suddenly begun to put faith in their sincerity, steadfastness and
      consistency. No, we are glad because it is an obvious and indubitable sign
      of the strength of the revolution. The revolution must have become a force
      since even the liberal monarchist bourgeoisie has come to realise the
      necessity for a provisional revolutionary government.

Weare not forgetting, of course, that the liberals want to use such a
government as a threat to the autocracy more than they desire its establishment,
just as a customer threatens the shopkeeper that he will go to another
shop. Lower your price, Mr. Witte, or we shall go into the provisional
revolutionary government, “mildly” termed “general council of
deputies” or “national council of deputies”! Only this desire to go
on haggling can explain the seeming senselessness and absurdity ofRusdeclaring the Witte Government in capable of convening representatives of the
people, and yet in the same breath granting that it is possible for this
government to “show itselfstillcapable of functioning”.

Oh,no, gentlemen of the liberal camp, these are not times in which such wiles
can succeed or in which duplicity can remain unexposed! The people are fighting
against the autocracy, which (on October 17) promised liberty only to make a
mock of liberty, to outrage it. A provisional revolutionary government is the
organ of a people fighting for liberty. The struggle for liberty against a
government which is trampling liberty underfoot is (at a certain stage in the
development of this struggle) an armed uprising, and this is what is now taking
place in Russia all along the line. A provisional revolutionary government is
the organ of insurrection, uniting all who have risen in revolt and exercising
political leadership of the insurrection. Therefore anyone who talks of the
possibility and necessity of a provisional revolutionary government, and yet
permits of a deal with the old government which is to be superseded, is either
confusing matters or committing an act of treachery. Indeed, just think,
gentlemen who write inRus: can there really be such simpletons among
the supporters of the revolutionwho would voluntarily accept as members of a provisional revolutionary
government individuals, or representatives of parties, who regard the old
government as still “capable of functioning” and who continue to pay
it visits by the back door, to bargain with it? Just consider: would the Russian
Army have gained or lost by including the patriotic young men of Manchuria in
its ranks? Most likely it would have lost, for the Manchurian patriots would
have betrayed the Russians to the Japanese. The revolutionary people of Russia
will likewise lose if the “patriots”, the monarchist-minded
patriots of the money-bag (i.e., the liberal bourgeois), betray them to the
Witte autocracy.

Letthe liberal bourgeoisie regard the provisional revolutionary government as
a mere threat to the autocracy. For the socialist proletariat, for the
revolutionary peasantry, and for all those who are resolutely and irrevocably
taking a stand with them in the struggle for liberty, the establishment of a
provisional revolutionary government is a great and extremely important task,
which becomes more pressing with every day. The October revolution, together
with the military risings which followed it, has so weakened the autocracy that
the organs of a new power —that of the people —have begun to spring
up spontaneously, on the ground ploughed up by the political strike and
fertilised with the blood of the champions of liberty. These organs are the
revolutionary parties and militant organisations of the workers,peasants and
other sections of the people who are waging a genuine revolutionary
struggle. These organs are bringing about in practice the alliance between the
socialist proletariat and the revolutionary petty bourgeoisie. We must now
extend and consolidate this fighting alliance, give it shape and cement it, so
that the organs of the new power are prepared for the coming repetition of
October 17, so that all the fighters for liberty throughout
Russia may then come forward with a common programme of immediate political
changes—organised, self-disciplined, well aware of their aim, keeping out
all traitors, all waverers, all windbags. For us representatives of the
socialist proletariat the forth coming democratic revolution is only one of the
steps to the great goal, the socialist revolution. Bearing this in mind, we
shall never merge with the petty-bourgeois parties or groups,however sincere, revolutionary or strong they may be; we know for certain that
      on the road to socialism, the ways of the worker and of the petty
      proprietor will very often inevitably diverge. But it is in the interests
      of socialism that we shall now do our utmost for the democratic revolution
      to be accomplished as speedily, as fully and as resolutely as pos
      sible. With this end in view, we shall conclude, and are con cluding, a
      temporary fighting alliance with all the revolutionary-democratic forces
      to attain our common immediate political aim. It is to this end that,
      while strictly preserving our Party identity and independence, we enter
      the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies and other revolutionary
      associations.
      Long live the new organs of power of the people! Welcome to the
      single, supreme and victorious organ of popular rule!

Andto the radical bourgeois we shall say in parting:

Gentlemen,you chatter about organs of power of the people. It is only strength
that makes power. In present-day society, only the armed people headed by the
armed proletariat can constitute this strength. If sympathy with liberty were
proved by words, we should probably have to call even the authors of the
Manifesto of October 17 supporters of liberty. But if it has to be proved by
deeds, then the only such deed at the present time is assistance in arming the
workers, assistance in forming and building up a genuinely revolutionary
army. So make your choice, gentlemen: will you go to Mr. Witte’s antechamber to
beg for crumbs of liberty, to haggle over the curtailment of liberty, or to the
“organs of power of the people”, to the provisional revolutionary
government, to fight selflessly for complete liberty? Choose!

[1]Thearticle“The Dying Autocracy and New Organs of
Popular Rule”was published as a separate leaflet by the Committee of
the United Social-Democratic Organisations of Nikolayev on December 14 (27),
1905, and reprinted inZabaikaisky Rabochy (The Trans-Baikal Worker),
No. 2, the paper of the Chita Committee of the R.S.D.L.P., on December 18
(31), 1905.

[2]Slovo(The Word)—adaily published in
St. Petersburg from 1904 to 1909. A paper of the Right-wing Zemstvo, It was
first (November 1905 to July 1906) a mouthpiece of the Octobrist Party and then
became an organ of the constitutional-monarchist party of “peaceful
renovators”, who were virtually indistinguishable from the
Octobrists.